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What an ugly display: a court case over alleged spying for China has collapsed because the United Kingdom’s espionage law has not been kept up to date – and all our politicians can do is rush to save their own skins.

The case involved two men, former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and academic Christopher Berry, accused of passing sensitive information to a senior Chinese Communist Party official.

Both were charged under the Official Secrets Act in April 2024, when the Conservatives were in power. The alleged offences dated from December 2021 to February 2023.

But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the case, saying it could not prove that China had been defined as a “threat to national security” at the time. Without that formal designation, the charges could not stand.

The result is a legal absurdity: everyone accepts that China engages in espionage, but because the government failed to update the law to reflect that fact, the prosecution fell apart.

Now both major parties are blaming each other for the mess.

The Conservatives claim Keir Starmer’s Labour government pressured officials to avoid jeopardising trade with China.

Labour points out that it was the Tories, in power when the alleged offences occurred, who never classified China as a national security threat – effectively sabotaging their own case.

While they trade accusations, nobody in Westminster is asking the real question: how can national security be taken seriously if the laws meant to defend it are left unfit for purpose?

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The political spin over process

The headlines scream “Chinese spying”, but the real story is the collapse of a prosecution and the political blame game that followed.

Each side is more interested in how the fallout looks than in fixing the hole in the law.

The Prime Minister ordered the release of witness statements by Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins, trying to look transparent.

But the Conservatives seized on them to allege political interference.

The irony is that the statements show continuity, not conspiracy: both governments share the same policy language on China — “We will co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must.”

The words were lifted straight from Labour’s manifesto, but almost identical phrasing had already appeared under the Conservatives.

In other words, those parties are united in pretending to be tough on China while keeping the trade doors open.

The ‘five per cent’ shortfall

CPS head Stephen Parkinson told MPs the case was “ninety-five per cent there”, but “five per cent short” of the evidence threshold.

It’s a meaningless phrase — not a legal standard but a political fig leaf.

That missing “five per cent” is simply the government’s failure to state clearly whether China was considered an “enemy” in law.

Without that wording, the CPS could not argue that passing information about the UK’s interests met the test for espionage.

So instead of confronting this legal grey area, ministers and prosecutors settled for mutual finger-pointing.

National security as a political prop

The real scandal is how easily “national security” is turned into a prop for political theatre.

The Conservatives now shout that Labour went soft on China, while Labour insists the Tories left them a broken system – which, by the way, is entirely plausible considering the collapse of government under the Tory-fuelled austerity of 2010 onwards. Government systems were pared down to the bone and many of them, it seems, collapsed entirely – “national security” included.

Yet neither political party now wants to update the system, because ambiguity suits them both.

It allows them to posture as defenders of the realm while maintaining “positive economic relations” with Beijing — code for don’t upset our corporate friends.

The human cost

Caught in the middle are the two accused men.

Christopher Cash says he has lost his career and reputation without the chance to prove his innocence: “I should not have to take part in a trial by media.”

Christopher Berry remains silent, but both are left in a political limbo — their names tarnished, their guilt or innocence undecided.

It is a reminder that when prosecutions are politicised, justice is the first casualty.

The distraction game

In the same week this case imploded, Dominic Cummings claimed that Chinese hackers had compromised the UK’s most secret systems.

That story was swiftly debunked by the National Cyber Security Centre.

But the timing was convenient: every shout of “Chinese infiltration!” keeps the press and public distracted from domestic failures — ranging from crumbling infrastructure to economic stagnation.

When governments can turn espionage into a headline diversion, they have no incentive to make the law work properly.

What are we left with?

The China spy case hasn’t exposed a great threat from abroad.

It has revealed something far closer to home: the collapse of competence and courage in Westminster.

We don’t know what China has been watching – but the only things our politicians are keeping under surveillance are their own backsides.

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